Page 17 of Waylon
“I don’t know that you’re grouchy nor old, but I understand what it is you’re talking about. Don’t get me started on black Friday. It used to be such a wonderful way to get out and get into the spirit of things, but now they start it well before Halloween, and all the charm of getting up at four in the morning is all gone. Not to mention getting better deals on the internet when they call it cyber weeks. What happened to cyber Monday?”
“You two are sounding a little disgruntled. How about if we agree to disagree with the way things have gone and make the best of the seasons. I know for a fact that I’m not going to be bored nor overwhelmed by the seasons if I can help it.” Dad snorted and said that once the children came along if they were to have any, then they’d see how things really were for the holidays.
They all did end up at the Christmas shop that was along the main street. It was beautiful the way that they had it all decorated, and with all the trees set up, he couldn’t help but to be ready to rush home and put up his own tree. However, the moment that he stepped outside in the warm evening, he had a dose of reality that made him second guess his decisions about tree decorating and lights around the house.
They were getting home around ten when he remembered that he had to unload his car. With them working together, the two of them were in bed at about eleven o’clock and asleep not too long after. It had been a long day and evening, and he, for one, was thrilled to be able to not just get into their bed but to put their feet up as well.
Their hot tub was being delivered and set up tomorrow. One more day and he figured that he could get himself relaxed enough that he’d not toss and turn so much. What with the new things coming in and the things going on with the newest addition to the family, he was about as beat as he’d ever been before. He was thrilled to no end that he had a place to unwind and relax like he did in his new home that wasn’t overwhelmed with family all the time. He loved them but they were a bit much when you were stressing out.
He had to get up twice in the middle of the night. Having all that good tea was something that he was paying for. Getting back into his bed the second time, he was happy to snuggle up to Londyn. Having her as his mate and friend was making him see things that he’d not before. Like how much his parents really and truly loved one another. And they did.
As they walked in front of them tonight, looking at the displays in the windows about sales coming up, they held each other’s hands. It wasn’t new to him to see them catching a kiss or two. He’d been amazed at his parents all his life and how much they loved to show how much they loved one another like they did. Even at football games, they were affectionate and loving. It used to embarrass him, but now all he could think about was that he’d love to have a love like they did. Where other people’s opinions mattered to them and they loved each other like they did with everything they did. They loved each other like they did and damn the consequences of anyone else opinion about them.
It made him want to be like them. And he decided that from now on he was going to show his love and support for all his family, not just his mate. Life was too unexpected and there was no point in his life to think that he should have done things differently when he had all the time in the world to love and to be loved. And Waylon did love his family with all that he was.
~*~
Londyn was thrilled with the way that her office was looking. She had an office in the downtown area, a place where she could have an office front in the event she was needed for the family, but having this lovely office at home was making her happy that she wasn’t going to be stuck in an office all day but to be able to deal with things as they came up and still be at home in the event Waylon or one of their children needed her when they came along.
Putting the little finishing touches around the room, photographs that she took with her phone of Waylon and his family in pretty frames. Pieces of things that she picked up while out with him too. A ticket stub here, some pretty stones from the beach that they’d gone to for an afternoon of boating. Little things that would mean very little to anyone else, but to her, they meant the world.
“Do you have time to—good heavens, Londyn, this is beautiful. I’m jealous that I didn’t have you do my office once I decided to have one at home.” She told Sherman, Waylon’s dad, that she was pleased with how it turned out as well. “My goodness, I love all the little touches. And the flowers are just the perfect touch to make the room seem less office like and more like a meeting place for anyone that comes in.”
“Thank you. I figured that if I was going to have an office at home, I make it something that I’d not avoid.” He said he thought he’d done that as well. “What is it that you wanted me to look over.”
“Oh, yes. It’s the testimony of the man who sued Waylon about the house he wanted to have built. I know that there isn’t going to be a trial anytime soon, if ever, but he says some things in it that make me wonder if this isn’t the way that he does things. Makes a few comments to people and then sues them when things don’t go his way.” She earmarked the things that he said that he wanted her to look over in favor of talking to Sherman. He was a brilliant man, she had discovered, and he loved history and the law.
“We took your advice and had our license filed about us being married. It was much easier than I thought it would be, and now it’s all done. Amy said that she’s having a large wedding in a fewmonths for her and Jayden to tie the knot and that her brother is insisting that it be in the White House. I couldn’t handle all that going on.” He told her that he wasn’t sure that he could either. “I guess when your sister of the president, there isn’t much you can do to make your life quiet.”
He told her how she had tried to stay out of the limelight when she’d been living at her own home, but it didn’t work out all that well for them. Now that it was out and about, it also served to hide away the relationship that Jamie had with his mother. Or the one that she thought that they’d have together.
“Yes, that was a mess from the start. The poor woman had her own terror of living at her childhood home, and that is what made her like she was.” She told him that she’d heard about it from Hazel. At least some of it. “I’m sure that she glossed over a great deal of it. Keeping it out of the paper had been the hardest on Jamie. Poor man. He and Carol or finally getting their life on track with their two little ones.”
They talked about different things for the next half hour. When he left her, she got to work on the paperwork that he’d brought her and made notes on the things that he’d pointed out to her. Once she had the notes, she turned them over to the man who was running the show when it came to suing Waylon about his home. She thought that it was a done deal that he was going to jail but she hadn’t kept up on things while she’d been hanging around her mate.
After she had finished up for the day, going to the kitchen to find out what plans had been made for dinner, she was told that they were going to cook out salmon and was happy about that. That was one of the things that she loved more than salads was grilled salmon and rice.
Going out to the pool, she dead headed some of the flowers that had lost their blooms and sat around the lovely area in favor of being in the house. Since meeting and falling in love with Waylon, she found that she loved the outdoors more than before, and her meals had changed as well. She enjoyed a nice green salad over having much in the way of meat and desserts. Even though she had one, it wasn’t much of a hardship to give up, either.
Heading home, the four of them hugged tightly before getting into their cars. It was an evening that she’d not soon forget, and was glad that they had made the time to join them. She was going to make sure that she and Waylon did this more often, just meeting up with his parents for a night out. It made the days seem so much better when you had something so wonderful to look forward to and to remember.
By the time they were home, it was dark enough that they had to use the flashlights on their phones to see the steps. Going inside and locking up, they didn’t even bother to look at the mail but simply went up to bed and fell exhausted into the bed. It was the first time since they’d been sleeping together that they didn’t make love before going to sleep. Exhaustion had a way of making them feel like they needed sleep over sex, she supposed.
The next morning, she was waiting for the things to be delivered when her cell phone rang. It occurred to her that she’d not made a connection with the rest of the family when she spoke to Cullen. He wanted to know if he could meet her for lunch today. All for spending time with him, they arranged to meet at her office and he told her that he’d be there by noon. It was just nine now, and she was excited to be able to help this member of the family out.
He arrived just as her boxes did, and once he got them into the room where they belonged, he sat at her new desk and smiled at her. She wasn’t sure of his smiles yet but was willing to think that it was a good one when he started speaking.
“The government wants me to reenlist. I’m not going to do it but they sent me a contract over that says some gibberish about how I can’t work for any other government agency so long as I live. I’m not sure why they’d think after all the time that I’ve spent with them that I’d go rogue on them, but that’s what I’m getting from the first read-over of the contract. If you could give it a good look, I’d appreciate it.” She asked him if he had it on him. Once the file was in her hands, she realized right off the bat that the wording of the first line was off. “What do you mean by off?”
“They’re saying that not only can you be tried with treason but that they can have you broughtfor a firing squad if you decided to do anything that the contract here forbids you to do. I’d not sign it simply for that reason. Firing squad? Do they even do that anymore?” He didn’t so much as blink at her. “Thank you for not answering that. But no, I’d not sign this.”
She read over the rest of the contract, and she picked up her phone and called Jamie. She’d been told to do that when she had questions, and she was reasonably sure that he had no idea that they were going to do things like this contract said to Cullen if he were to simply step into another office of the government. He answered her with a laugh, and she had to smile.
After reading to him what was in the first couple of paragraphs, he asked her to fax it to him. She told him that according to the contract, he couldn’t fax it anywhere or he’d be killed.
“I don’t like this. Send it over, and I’ll take care that nothing happens to him. Nor you. Christ, this sounds like something that another country would do to my boy.” She sent it to him, then sat back and waited for him to get it. “I’m going to read this over and—ah yes, it is signed. Good. This won’t take me but a few hours to get to the bottom of. Let me call you both back when I have this straightened out. Arrogant people drive me insane.”
While they waited on the callback, Cullen helped her put her things in the right places. He was extremely helpful in moving her desk to the window, being that he was as strong as…well, an ape. Plus he was able to get the boxes broken down quickly and efficiently without much in the way of mess. She loved that he was a clean as he went person. She might well have been overwhelmed if not for him being there helping. By the time they got the call back from Jamie, they had the office situated and ready for her first job. Second, she supposed, counting Cullen.